GUID Visual Overlay
Hover over any GUID to see a unique, deterministic avatar.
Features
- Visual GUID identification — Each GUID gets a unique avatar, making it easy to spot the same GUID across your codebase
- Azure AD lookup — Optionally identify users, groups, service principals, and apps by GUID
- 18 avatar styles — Robots, characters, portraits, and more
- Insert GUID command — Quickly insert a new GUID with
Ctrl+K, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G
- Fully offline — All avatars generated locally, no network required (AAD lookup is optional)
Usage
Simply hover over any GUID in your code:
550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
A popup will display a unique avatar for that GUID.
Azure AD Lookup (Optional)
If you work with Azure/Entra ID, you can enable AAD lookup to identify GUIDs as users, groups, service principals, or app registrations.
Requirements: Azure CLI (az) installed and authenticated (az login)
Modes:
disabled (default) — Avatar only, no AAD functionalityenabled — Shows a "Look up in Azure AD" button; results appear in a notificationauto — Waits for AAD lookup before showing hover (respects timeout setting)
Settings
| Setting |
Description |
Default |
guidVisualOverlay.avatarStyle |
Avatar style |
bottts |
guidVisualOverlay.aadLookupMode |
AAD lookup mode: disabled, enabled, or auto |
disabled |
guidVisualOverlay.aadLookupTimeout |
Timeout (ms) for AAD lookup in auto mode |
5000 |
Available Styles
| Style |
Preview |
adventurer |
 |
adventurerNeutral |
 |
avataaars |
 |
avataaarsNeutral |
 |
bigEars |
 |
bigEarsNeutral |
 |
bigSmile |
 |
bottts |
 |
croodles |
 |
croodlesNeutral |
 |
dylan |
 |
lorelei |
 |
loreleiNeutral |
 |
micah |
 |
notionists |
 |
notionistsNeutral |
 |
openPeeps |
 |
personas |
 |
Commands
| Command |
Keybinding |
Description |
| Insert GUID |
Ctrl+K, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G |
Insert a new random GUID at cursor |
| GUID: Look up in Azure AD |
— |
Look up the GUID at cursor in Azure AD |
| GUID: Clear Azure AD Cache |
— |
Clear the AAD lookup cache |
Why?
GUIDs are hard to tell apart at a glance. This extension gives each one a memorable visual identity, so you can quickly recognize when two GUIDs match — or don't.
The optional AAD lookup goes further — if you're working with Azure resources, you can instantly see what a GUID represents (user, group, service principal, or app).
Development
This extension is built with Bun, a fast JavaScript runtime and bundler.
Prerequisites
- Bun - Install with
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
- VS Code
Building
# Install dependencies
bun install
# Development build
bun run build
# Production build (minified)
bun run build.ts --minify
# Watch mode
bun --watch build.ts
Publishing
bun run vscode:prepublish
License
MIT
